
Along these lines, the stand out for me personally has been our re-opening weekend with Meduza on Thursday, Rezz and Cityfox Regenerate on Friday and Saturday, followed by two Black Coffee shows in a row. Kocay: What are some of your favorite shows over this past year?īildstein: “I’m particularly proud of the increasing breadth of our offering. Despite the fact that there wasn’t work available at that time, they were positive and constructive.” Many of them were furloughed, but they didn’t let it get them down. I was really moved and inspired by our people and their commitment. “Also, some of our team members were active in last summer’s protests and organized and delivered beverages to local rallying points. That effort sent over 140,000 produce boxes to food insecure families throughout the city. “In partnership with local assemblywoman Maritza Davila’s office, we provided space and support for World Central Kitchen to operate onsite. Courtesy of Were there any positives that came out of the experience?īildstein: “Our connection with the local community became much richer-we’re incredibly thankful for the relationships we built and the good work we did. Postponing over 200 shows multiple times was a very complicated and difficult task as well, but our programming team did an amazing job and we found a way to follow through with almost all of these shows.”Ĭityfox. The team had to continually modify strategies to sync with frequently shifting local and state requirements.
#Brooklyn mirage events how to
We employ over 350 people and like so many in our business, I spent many sleepless nights figuring out how to protect as many jobs as possible while simultaneously trying to keep the business going and a reopening on track. Kocay: What were some of the biggest hurdles?īildstein: “The inability to build a meaningful timeline made things rough. But through this we again demonstrated our resilience, as we have had to come back from adversity before.” We hustled, networked and created new strategic partnerships. We worked with dozens of promoters and venue owners globally through industry groups to collaborate on solutions for the future. We navigated difficult conversations with our landlord, vendors, artists and agents. Kocay: How did Avant Gardner navigate the pandemic?īildstein: “We maintained a core staff of 10 managers and staff, who all demonstrated agility in taking on new skills as we planned the way forward. We combined that base concept with the design and style direction of a timeless temple, and the Mirage was born.” Tiers of platforms and people dancing within these levels of the pit was another inspiration for our multi-level venue design. I thought something like that in the industrial part of East Williamsburg could work well, where you kind of forget where you are once you’re inside, time almost standing still, but outside of it, or in our case once you’re on the top levels of the Mirage, you realize that you’re in the middle of New York City with perfect Manhattan skyline views. The final scene zooms out of the pit and you suddenly realize there is something ‘bigger’ happening in the outside world of it-you can see buildings that resemble parts of a city. The video was Gravel Pit and its prehistoric ‘amphitheater’ design inspired me.

In a former life I was part of a hip hop group as a rapper, and the Wu Tang Clan released an all-time favorite music video of mine, which I re-discovered in 2015. Kocay: Is it true that the Brooklyn Mirage’s design was inspired from a Wu Tang Clan music video?īildstein: “Yes.
